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Early Morning Riser
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Early Morning Riser
Looks like my body is beginning to get into the habit of rising in early mornings. You can’t blame me because I live close to the ocean and parks. In hot and humid Florida. During summer. It’s relaxing to greet the rising sun ( so long as no rains, thunder and lightning, hurricane are in the horizon). Once I ran without checking the weather and boy did it rain and lightning were so severe I won’t do that again! Nowadays I include weather checks before running. And also, as a PT, I don’t want to make the impression I limit all my exercises to running. I subscribe to the ‘wholeness of body’ principle. I don’t believe in ‘specializing’ in one activity only. I mix and match everything that involves cardio vascular, endurance, strength, balance, stretching, pain control or relief, injury prevention, mental/spiritual health. These are all involved in the well being of man. So -- walking, running, swimming, cycling, pilates, yoga, gardening/yard work, resistance training, stretching, meditation/contemplation, relaxation -- are all healthy activities for me. Note that I refrain from using the word ‘exercise’ in my retinue because exercise is a big and daunting words for many. Exercise is associated with time, gym, consistency, maximum effort and lots of people, let’s face it, don’t want it. Allow me to limit the use of the word and be more specific.
A few activities I indulge in nowadays are landscaping, beach walking, running and beginner’s core strengthening. Now, pilates nowadays is practiced left and right and I think one has to get certified by a Professional before he can claim the title Pilates Instructor. I am not a Pilates instructor alright but I have my own ideas about core strengthening that can be similar to Pilates. Go to Pilates instructor if you have the money and resources but for me, a simple core workout will suffice. Core involves the center of the body that is most susceptible to injuries because
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Abdominal muscles are constantly stretched and weakened by obesity (increased circumference) while back muscles are constantly contracted to keep our bodies upright when standing, sitting or working.
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Some conditions such as stroke, surgeries, abdominal hernia, pregnancy, sedentary lifestyle, beer belly (LOL), back injury (most common) among many can lead to core weakness or core imbalance.
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Heavy focus on extremities (arms, legs) and chest during gym visits make people forget about core strength, and if they remember it, tends to overdo the crunches and leg raises and abdominal/obliques/back machines without sufficient warm ups and preparation thus leading to soreness and avoidance of these exercises.
These are only a few of the reasons I can think of right now that can lead to core weakness. And core strengthening is one of the most important components of whole body health. Whether you sit in your office, work with patients, in construction, electrical or plumbing, teaching, preaching, modeling, acting, dancing, standing in retail, cooking, almost any work requires core strength. The real precursor of back pain is not twisting or bending or lifting, it is the core muscle weakness or more precisely, core muscle imbalance. We tend to overuse our back muscles and letting go of our abdominal/oblique/transverse musculature in our daily lives. Well, to keep upright, we normally use our core strength in a balanced way. But between poor posture and the kind of work we do, we tend to overuse the back muscle more than abdominal. With that said, it takes only one false move and the whole core snaps and next thing you know you are in an MD office while he orders Xrays, MRI, pain meds and Physical Therapy or Chiropractor’s visits for you. That will start your lifetime agony of not dependence on narcotics. Worse you may end up with back surgery.
Active Sunday in Lake Worth
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It is Sunday and my day off. I woke up at around 6 am, immediately craving for a morning coffee. My sleep was perfect. Yesterday I finished reading the novel The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. That novel lured me into searching for the works by and about Isaac Newton and I downloaded two books from Kindle (almost free): The Principia and some other book about his biography. I don’t exactly recall how I ended in Scribd downloading another book entitled Solitude (A Return to Self ) by Anthony Storr. I probably saw it as an ad and it’s free with my Scribd subscription.
That is a lot of reading ahead of me but today I was bent to do one thing and only one thing -- I will get out there to run and watch people do their own versions of active lifestyle. I love mornings like this: there is nothing more beautiful and inspiring than going outdoors to watch the sun peek its head from the clouds releasing its rays on the roads emptied of car traffic and dominated by cyclists. Sidewalks are proliferated by people jogging, running, walking, young people, old people and people like me, somewhere in the middle. I parked my car in the space allotted for my permit sticker, right in front of the beach. I pulled my smartphone and started to walk and then jog. This is my mode nowadays: Run and walk, run and walk. In my younger years, I used to run like the police were chasing me rendering me always on the ‘verge’ of injury in those days. Hence the run/walk approach. My body is no longer immune, the protection of youth has disappeared so just like a car waaaay expired of warrantee, I am more delicate and susceptible (ha!) so I am a little bit more careful and sensitive to potential injuries or worse, medical conditions due to overdoing activities and tasks. There is such a thing as over-exercising.
From Lake Avenue Road to Lantana - that is my route - I directed my strides on the sidewalk, passing a few runners saying Good Morning and meeting other runners who are surprisingly cheerful, perhaps it’s the weather and this early morning is like the only respite we will all get for the remaining dayy. In about 3 to 4 hours, the temperature is forecasted over a hundred degrees. So we all sort of take advantage of the cool morning.
After finishing running 5 miles, I was pleasantly surprised by the quiet shore of Lake Worth Beach. Soon I found myself charging towards it, with its tepid water and virtually calm waves. I did my little sprints of breaststroke and freestyle, roughly 10 yards each way back and forth, yeah, I haven’t swam anywhere for almost a year now. It’s a great, great morning swim. As usual, I don’t let this pass in this digital and social network age without posting videos and pics on facebook. That’s life. I know. I want to post this in this blog for my own inspiration. Seeing these will keep me active. That’s my goal.
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